After 40 and 100 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) and 100 Gigabit per second (Gb/s) optical transport network (OTN) have been standardized, it is expected that the next bit rate(s) per channel to be used beyond 100 Gb/s may be 400 Gb/s and/or 1000 Gb/s (1 Terabit per second). For example, considerations of 400 Gb/s and 1000 Gb/s for Ethernet and/or OTN and some possible architecture implementations for 400 Gb/s and/or 1000 Gb/s are discussed in the following references:
an article entitled “100 Gigabit Ethernet and Beyond”, by John D'Ambrosia, in IEEE Communications Magazine, March 2010, pages S6-S13;
an article entitled “Optical Transport Network Evolving with 100 Gigabit Ethernet”, by Josef Roese, Ralf-Peter Braun, Masahito Tomizawa and Osamu Ishida in IEEE Communications Magazine, March 2010, pages S28S34;
an article entitled “Ultra-High-Capacity DWDM Transmission System for 100 G and Beyond”, by Jianjun Yu and Xiang Zhou, in IEEE Communications Magazine, March 2010, pages S56-S64;
an article entitled “Beyond 100 G Ethernet”, by Peter J. Winzer, in IEEE Communications Magazine, July 2010, pages 26-30;
an article entitled “Flexible Architectures for Optical Transport Nodes and Networks”, by Steven Gringeri, Bert Basch, Vishnu Shukla, Roman Egorov, and Tiejun J. Xia, in IEEE Communications Magazine, July 2010, pages 40-50;
an article entitled “Elastic Optical Networking: A New Dawn for the Optical Layer?”, by Ori Gerstel, Masahiko Jinno, Andrew Lord, and S. J. Ben Yoo, in IEEE Communications Magazine, February 2012, pages S12-S20;
an article entitled “Technical Considerations for Supporting Data Rates Beyond 100 Gb/s”, by Steven Gringeri, E. Bert Basch, and Tiejun J. Xia, in IEEE Communications Magazine, February 2012, pages S21S30;
an article entitled “Beyond 100 G Client Optics”, by Chris Cole, in IEEE Communications Magazine, February 2012, pages S58-S66; and
an article entitled “Silicon CMOS-Integrated Nano-Photonics for Computer and Data Communications Beyond 100 G”, by Yurii A. Vlasov, in IEEE Communications Magazine, February 2012, pages S67S72.
The following references are further believed to represent the state of the art:
an article entitled “Photonic Integration for High-Volume, Low-Cost Applications”, by Chris Cole, Bernd Huebner, and John E. Johnson, in IEEE Communications Magazine, March 2009, pages S16-S22; and
an article entitled “Multiflow Optical Transponder for Efficient Multilayer Optical Networking”, by Masahiko Jinno, Hidehiko Takara, Yoshiaki Sone, Kazushige Yonenaha, and Akira Hirano, in IEEE Communications Magazine, May 2012, pages 56-65.